Why Bill Black Won’t be Briefing Congress about Derivatives

[marmar]

from Dollars & Sense:



Why Bill Black Won’t be Briefing Congress about Derivatives


When I was the Deputy Director of FSLIC [Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation], House Banking Committee Chairman St Germain was helping Speaker Wright hold the FSLIC recapitalization bill hostage to extort favors for Texas control frauds, including Don Dixon’s Vernon Savings (which was providing prostitutes to the State of Texas’ top S&L regulator and was building towards having 96% of its ADC loans in default – which is why we referred to it as “Vermin”). The attack on our agency was that we were mad dogs biased against Texas S&Ls and causing the Texas crisis by closing too many insolvent but well-run Texas S&Ls. Our response had many elements, but one of our principal points was that the Texas S&Ls we were closing were typically control frauds. At this juncture, St Germain’s staffers made a mistake. They requested that we testify on a host of issues, but the invite letter had a zinger, premised on an article saying that the Feds were slow to prosecute frauds in the Southwest. The invite specifically called for us to respond and discuss the role of fraud in the Southwest. We used the opportunity to explain the extensive role of fraud in Texas S&L failures.

The day of the hearing, I walked toward the witness table, but was called over by St Germain’s chief of staff. He proceeded to disinvite us from testifying on the grounds that we had filed non-responsive testimony. (We had, of course, responded to every inquiry they made. They simply hated the response because we documented the enormous role that control fraud was playing in causing Texas S&Ls to fail.)

Today, I received definitive word that I had been disinvited from a bipartisan briefing of members of Congress on the subject of financial derivatives. I have deleted the name of the staffer because he is not the issue. The relevant email thread is below.

The member of Congress putting the event together is one of the strongest advocates of the need for banking reform. I have assisted the Member’s staff in the past in such efforts. The Member’s chief of staff called me today. His position is that I was never invited to participate and that it was unfortunate that I booked the flights and put UMKC on the hook for the non-refundable fares and hotel before informing his office that I was accepting their inquiry about participation (as opposed to invitation). He explains that it is impossible physically to have me participate and that the decision not to have me participate has nothing to do with concerns about “balance” or “bank bashing.” I emphasize also that, unlike St Germain’s disinvitation the email thread states an interest in inviting me to speak at future briefings. I hope that such invitations will be made. The Member and the Member’s staff were polite while St Germain’s chief of staff was deliberately rude. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2012/05/why-bill-black-won%E2%80%99t-be-briefing-congress-about-derivatives.html

[PDJane]

1. Willful blindness is the problem, and it beggars the solution.

[snot]

2. Bill Black is a national treasure . . .

along with so many others who have correctly diagnosed our problems but have been almost entirely ignored by our gov't.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. He's a local. I get to hear him speak a couple times a year.

We are blessed to have Professor Black right here in our city. Yes, he's a treasure.

[girl gone mad]

5. UMKC has the best economics dept. in the country. n/t

[xchrom]

4. ...

They Know what he will if he testifies.